Isra looks at the house as they walk up to it. It's a two story home, and Isra is impressed mostly by the garden in the front yard that appears to wrap around to the back. Isra doesn't know much about homes, but he thinks this one has a nice appearance. Isra only hopes that the nice exterior means that Corwyn's family is nice as well.

Corwyn opens the door to his house hesitantly. He feels the urge to peek inside first, to check if the coast is clear, but with Isra behind him, he doesn't want to look like a fool.

The two boys are greeted with warm lighting and wood floors. As well as Corwyn's parents. Isra hardly gets to admire the interior of the home when his eyes focus to the right of them to the two people sitting on the couch stiffly, as if expecting them.

Corwyn stops as well and immediately begins to ramble defensively.

"Listen, I can explain, just lemme— he was sick and I was just—" Corwyn bounces on his feet, glancing at Isra and then back to his parents. "Can I take him to my room? And then I'll explain?"

Isra feels awkward as he stands under the scrutiny of Corwyn's parents for a few moments. It takes a barely there nod from his mother for Corwyn to be grabbing Isra's hand and dragging him up the stairs.

It takes Corwyn slamming his door and whirling on Isra to realize what just happened and he waves his hands around frantically. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to drag you like that? I didn't hurt you, did I? That was so awkward, I'm so sorry—"

Isra grabs Corwyn by the shoulders and cuts off his rambling. "I'm fine."

He isn't lying. In the time that the taxi ride took to get here, Isra has managed to heal quite a bit, especially without all of those machines hooked up to him. They do help normal people, but for Isra, they're nothing but a hindrance.

Corwyn's face shows nothing but skepticism nonetheless. "Okay, um," he takes Isra's hands off of his shoulders and uses them to guide Isra to sit down on his bed, "sit here. I'll, um, be right back. Don't move." After giving Isra a long look, as if expecting him to argue, Corwyn quickly rushes out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

Isra blinks, not fully processing what's going on, curious if there are some underlying hints he should be picking up on but isn't. He chooses to look around Corwyn's room instead of dwelling on it.

To the right of the door are a couple of shelves which seem to contain many knickknacks, underneath of which is a desk that's quite messy. On the wall next to that and in front of Isra is the closet. To the right of him are two windows, where it seems as if Corwyn has used up every available space to put a plant at.

Isra smiles at the room, it seems simplistic, he used the space he had available to him, yet nothing is overwhelming.

Isra stands up, heading over to the shelves to look at the items on it. There are many things on it, shark teeth, a pair of dog tags, a couple of photos, and even some chess pieces. Everything seemed to be placed here at random, but Isra knows that it's probably otherwise.

"I collect things to remember memories."

Isra turns to his left to see Corwyn standing in the doorway. Corwyn walks over to the shelf and picks up one of the photos. Isra looks at it in Corwyn's hand.

It's of two boys, one of which looks like Corwyn a couple of years ago along with an older boy who has his arm around Corwyn's shoulders. They're both laughing in the photo.

Isra looks at Corwyn's face, who's smiling softly. "Is that your brother?" Corwyn nods. "I had siblings too. A bunch of brothers and sisters." Corwyn looks at Isra, a moment of understanding passes between the two of them. "What happened to him?"

Corwyn doesn't do anything for a moment except blink before he quickly places the picture back where it belongs, flashing Isra a quick, sad smile. "Come on. My parents want to meet you."

Isra follows Corwyn downstairs calmly, while inside Corwyn is freaking out.

After leaving Isra in his room, he didn't get yelled at, his parents not wanting to do anything with Isra upstairs, but he could feel the guilt seeping into his bones. He doesn't know how his parents can manage to make him feel guilty for something he originally didn't feel guilty for.

They talked about how worried they were, and how he should never do anything like that again.

What worried Corwyn the most is that once they were done scolding him, they immediately jumped on meeting Isra. They wanted to make sure Isra wasn't a bad influence, after all, he "kidnapped" their son.

Corwyn just wanted to make sure they would let Isra stay. He prayed that Isra acts on his best behavior.

Isra didn't know what to do, but he did know that he didn't feel confident in the slightest. While he tried to maintain a calm facade on his way from Corwyn's room to downstairs, but now faced with Corwyn's mother he doesn't know what to do. Isra looks at Corwyn with wide eyes as Corwyn's mother only stares. Corwyn shrugs from where he stands next to his mother, making a vague gesture for Isra to say something.

"Um, hi?"

Corwyn closes his eyes and lets out a breath when he hears the cautious tone that comes out of Isra's mouth. He's sure his mother is about to eat the boy alive.

"Hello, Isra. So you are the boy my son has been spending all of his time with lately?"

Isra only nods as a response. He's faced other gods and goddesses, people stronger than this woman who stands before him, and yet his words couldn't help but get caught in his throat.

"Well, while I'm happy my son has finally found a friend, I'm not sure how I feel about you stealing him for days on end."

"I'm... sorry?"

"You're sorry?"

Isra had the feeling this woman wasn't as threatening as she was trying to appear. While she was taller than Corwyn she was still shorter than Isra, and so she had to look up at him to maintain eye contact. Studying her face, Isra could spot a couple of features of Corwyn's that are clearly from his mother, including his nose.

Imagining her not as a threatening woman, but instead as the protective mother that she is, helps Isra with reacting to the situation.

"I apologize. I didn't realize something like that would happen and especially around your son. If I had been able to I would have made him go home."

Corwyn's mother nods her head, seemingly satisfied. "My son told me that you need to stay with us for a few days. You'll be staying in his room. We'll be going over the rules about your staying here over dinner. Dinner is at six o'clock. You may call me Adelaide."

She begins walking off as soon as she's finished. "Thank you... " he begins to call out, but she's already gone, "Adelaide."

Corwyn is surprised. He doesn't know how Isra managed to appease his mother. The rare times Corwyn has brought a friend home (friend used loosely, they were usually assigned partners for school projects), his mother has scared them away.

Corwyn doesn't take the chance for his mother to change her mind and he once again drags Isra back to his bedroom.

Isra barely recovers from the shock of what happened when he realizes he's back in Corwyn's room. "That went... well?"

Corwyn gives Isra an indecipherable look before flopping back onto his bed. "Are you magic?"

Isra blinks, wondering how Corwyn could possibly know anything about him, but deciding to play dumb anyway. "What?"

"I don't think I've ever brought someone home that she's liked. You must be magic."

"Oh." Isra relaxes, looking at where Corwyn is on his bed, staring at the ceiling. "I'm not magic." The lie is out before he can stop it, and he doesn't like the taste of it in his mouth.

Corwyn turns his eyes from the ceiling to Isra's figure, standing in the middle of his room. "You can sit down." He scoots over in his bed, making room.

Isra does so, sitting on the edge, feeling anything but relaxed. He doesn't know why Corwyn was so adamant on keeping his company, even though he's clearly better now, which he's surprised Corwyn hasn't brought up. He's worried that at any moment Corwyn is going to demand answers from him, and he knows he promised to tell the truth.

But he isn't sure if he can.

"So," Corwyn turns his body slightly to look at Isra, "are you going to explain what happened?"

The dreaded question. Corwyn was hoping that Isra would bring it up himself since he promised to tell him, but after waiting through those couple of minutes of silence, Corwyn knew he couldn't wait.

Corwyn trusts Isra. He knows that. But he doesn't know how he should feel about everything that has happened. He doesn't know why he trusts Isra and now all of this is starting to put doubt in his head. Why did Isra never tell Corwyn about his illness? Is it an illness? Is he dying? How come he's better now? Why is Isra being weird about it?

Corwyn just wanted to know.

"I don't know if I can explain."

"You promised." Corwyn takes a shaky breath. "You promised to tell me everything."

"I know." Isra's voice is a raspy whisper, "I just don't know where to start."

Isra's heart is pounding inside his chest. He doesn't know what to do, what to say. He doesn't want to scare Corwyn away but doesn't want to lie. Every part of him just want to run away, leave, never come back.

But he can't.

"I'm dying." Isra winces at his choice of words as Corwyn shoots up in bed, his eyes wide.

"What?" Corwyn feels like screaming. He would have screamed if not for his parents downstairs. He wants to cry. How could Isra keep this from him?

"That... that came out wrong." Of all the things Isra could have said, the worse thing came out of his mouth. But is it wrong? "I should probably start from the beginning."

Corwyn's voice comes out broken, "That would be nice, yeah."

"Okay, I just... I need you to listen until the end, okay?" Isra doesn't want Corwyn stopping him before he can explain himself, he knows his story will sound outrageous. Corwyn agrees, and so Isra starts.

He explains how the gods and goddesses fell from the heavens and have been living here on the mortal plane. He explains how he's the God of Chaos and has been living here for centuries, burning his way through mortal bodies faster and faster each time.

He explains how after living alone for centuries, he heard Corwyn's prayer, and he just had to come and look. Look who was praying for him.

"So, yes. I'm dying. But not like you think."

Corwyn blinks, trying to connect the dots in his head. The story doesn't seem reasonable in the slightest, and he shouldn't believe it, yet he does. It's strange how Isra showed up that day in the rain, although Corwyn doesn't like to think about it. That memory is both good and bad, he was at a low point in his life, but he met Isra, and Isra changed that.

He trusts Isra, and he knows Isra wouldn't lie to him, not with something like this. No matter how insane his story sounds, Corwyn believes him.

"You're not lying are you?"

"No. I'm not." Isra doesn't bring up how he may have been lying before, but that doesn't matter now. He tells himself he won't lie to Corwyn ever again.

The two boys sit in silence, not knowing what to say to the other. Corwyn's mind is spinning, having questions he wants to ask, but not knowing which he wants answered first. Isra is anxious, ready to leave the moment Corwyn realizes he doesn't want to see Isra anymore.

"You know you sound insane, right?"

"I know." Isra pauses, taking a deep breath. "I can leave if you want."

"No!" Corwyn reaches a hand out, before faltering and putting it back down. "No, I just..." Just what? What did he need? He needs Isra to not leave. "I just need some time to think about it. You don't need to leave. I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You have nothing to be sorry for." Isra understands. So he lets Corwyn think. The two sit in silence.